"We can't say that the legendary Etruscan kings of Rome
Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, or Tarquinius Superbus
actually existed. But we can say that in the sixth century B.C. the
Etruscans did rule Rome.
"For instance, Servius Tullius supposedly founded important
centers of worship in Rome. No one believed it. Now we've found
them. Two Etruscan temples at the Forum Boarium on the Tiber."
It's not easy to locate the remains of Etruscan Rome. I walk the
Tiber to the Ponte Palatino and cross that bridge, headed for the
Forum. Beneath me two men fish from a parapet in front of two
drainage arches in the river wall. The larger arch is recent. The sec
ond is old and covers the Cloaca Maxima, which the Etruscans
built to drain marshes on the site of the Forum.
I walk on, climbing Capitoline Hill to look down on the magnifi
cent remains of the Forum and the Colosseum. Rome's first monu
mental temple, to Jupiter, also built by the Etruscans, once
crowned this hill. I need the help of scholar Antonella Magagnini to
find the few surviving stones of the temple base.
Nearby the Capitoline Museum features the famous snarling
bronze she-wolf, whose defiant eyes made her the symbol of
Roman might. "She was made in an Etruscan workshop," says
Magagnini. "Only later did the
Romans adopt her."
And that's about it. Few oth
er traces remain of the people
whose engineering and culture
helped transform Rome from a
cluster of villages into the Eter
nal City. And who also gave to
Rome the triumphal rites, the
procession, the toga that would
mark the empire, and the bish
op's staff that survives today.
Roman writers imply that the
vibrant and luxurious culture
the Tarquins brought was re
sented by the Latin residents.
The status of Etruscan wom
en, suggests Larissa Bonfante,
also would have galled the
locals. A woman of early Rome
tended to the household and her
spinning. She had no name of her own, only her father's followed
by her husband's. Etruscan noblewomen, such as Tanaquil, not
only went by their own names, they probably could own property
and may even have had the right to raise children on their own.
RIVING BACK TO TARQUINIA, I can sense the rigidity that
I associate with Rome slowly fading. I am eager to
return to the tombs, where Etruscan exuberance still
prevails. It's all there in the paintings. Occasionally
the erotic couplings titillate. But the harmony of the
Etruscans' tombs, their magical sense of color and movement and
even humor, their unabashed love of life, quickly dispel any sense
of pornography. These were a people at peace with themselves and
THE UNIVERSE lay revealedin the
liver, Etruscans believed. This
bronze model of a sheep liver was
probably used by an Etruscan
priest, or haruspex, to teach neo
phytes. Priestsused fresh livers,
still steaming, to divine the plan
ning of cities and other important
events. In accordancewith Etrus
can belief, the liver was divided
into 16 celestial provinces, each
ruled by its own god.
A bronze model of a haruspex
from the second century B.C .
(facingpage) shows the elon
gated style sometimes used in
late Etruscansculpture.
The EternalEtruscans
735